Avon Products Reports Wider Loss, Sales Decline

Avon Products Inc. reported on Thursday a fourth-quarter net loss that widened to $330.7 million, or 75 cents a share, from $69.1 million, or 16 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. The beauty products company said non-recurring items, such as a charge resulting from lower projected foreign course income, reduced earnings during the period by 95 cents a share. In addition, the negative effect of currency moves had a 22 cents-a-share impact on earnings. Revenue fell 12% to $2.34 billion from $2.67 billion. The FactSet consensus was for adjusted per-share earnings of 25 cents and revenue of $2.35 billion. For 2015, the company expects currency moves to reduce revenue by 12 percentage points. The stock, which gained 1.1% in premarket trade, has lost 19% over the past three months through Wednesday, while the S&P 500 has gained 1.5%.